The defeat of the army means losing order. The extremely flustered soldiers run around in fear, regardless of where they are ahead.
Detour back to the Han Army 20 miles to the west of the main battle field. They didn't have much time to find the terrain with absolute advantage for layout. In fact, half way through, the rapid marching army suddenly noticed a large number of enemy troops coming from the main battlefield and temporarily arranged to block the West bank.
Judging from the anti Han axis coalition coming from the direction of the main battlefield, there is no formation to speak of. It is the kind that appears first in twos and threes, followed by a large number of people everywhere. In an instant, the Han Army judges the other party as a rout.
The circuitous Han Army really didn't expect the results of the battle on the main battlefield so soon. For a time, it was surprised by the sudden collapse of troops.
If there were a large number of enemy rout troops, even if the Han army could intercept them, it would certainly be too late to start the formation, and only a small part of the rout troops behind them could be intercepted.
After the Han army launched the formation, it crossed a front about 2000 meters long. In fact, it could not intercept all the rout troops. After all, the enemy rout troops were running all over the mountains and fields, not concentrated in one place.
What elbata saw was that the defeated soldiers of his side who ran to the intercepting line organized by the Han army were swept one by one by the firearm troops of the Han army. The defeated soldiers who did not run from the intercepting position of the Han army were only chased and killed by the cavalry of the Han Army team.
"Let's go around!"
Elbata thought that he did not choose to bypass because he was afraid, but because his current state was not suitable for continuing the war.
The previous rout soldiers were basically disorganized. Elbata appeared with this organized Persian army. In fact, it was very conspicuous and was immediately discovered by the Han army.
"Mobilize a song of cavalry." Yang Rui could see through the telescope that the Persian cavalry remained organized: "try to disperse."
Soon a trumpeter sounded the horn. The Han cavalry, who had been scattered to hunt down the enemy's defeated soldiers, joined the small team and formed a large team. It was easy to see the Persian cavalry galloping to the side of the battlefield.
Yang Rui had only two thousand cavalry on hand. He mobilized a song to fight against the organized Persian cavalry. In fact, his greatest intention was a means of insurance.
Most of the anti Han axis coalition forces are in a state of collapse, and there is an enemy force that still maintains order. If this organized enemy force is allowed to move, there will be a great threat.
Of course, elbata found that Han cavalry was catching up with his army, and an unprecedented suffocation filled his heart. He kept scolding in his heart, and he would run away regardless. The Han Army did not kill those easy to kill, but stared at himself.
The Persian cavalry who maintained their organizational strength, even if they did not collide with the intercepting line of the Han Army, still caused trouble. First, their detour led a large number of anti Han axis coalition forces to run sideways.
If the number of anti Han axis coalition forces rushing towards the Han Army intercept line decreases, the number of anti Han axis coalition forces eliminated by the Han army will naturally decrease.
The circuitous Han army could only reach 10000, with 5000 infantry and 2000 cavalry as the main force, and the rest were 3000 foot cold weapon soldiers.
Only 10000 Han troops wanted to intercept the defeated troops of the anti Han axis coalition, and a cavalry went after the organized Persian cavalry.
The terrain on this side is flat. It is not an ideal blocking terrain at all. Basically, how much can be intercepted and killed is a battlefield of luck.
Yang Rui knows two things at the same time.
First, blocking only one position so that the enemy's routed soldiers will not have no other way to run is actually a rational approach. If the enemy's routed soldiers don't even have a place to escape, they may be forced to work hard.
Second, they have too few troops. The enemy's routs look all over the mountains and fields. Later, there will be enemy routs running over. It is ideal to be able to stabilize the front line for interception. Pull the intercept line longer and thinner, and even divide troops to block. Maybe it will break in these 10000 troops.
There was a strange scene on this battlefield. The Han army set up interceptors to block the attack, and there were rout soldiers hitting them and becoming corpses. The rout soldiers of the anti Han axis coalition forces in other directions endured the tail chasing and killing of the Han cavalry, and became killing, being killed and fleeing. No one cared about who they looked like.
Towards the evening, a cavalry unit came first on the main battlefield. The officer in charge informed Yang Rui of the situation on the main battlefield, and then this unit joined the pursuit of the anti Han axis coalition.
Even an hour or two later, the enemy soldiers who had collapsed in the direction of the main battlefield were still not cut off. They didn't know whether they didn't see the corpses in front of them and the Han Army, and bumped into them and became corpses.
"This side is almost a pile of corpses."
"They are still climbing the corpse mountain and come up for us to kill."
"This is the rout."
If a person is occupied by the idea of running for his life, his brain will indeed become stupid. Without his usual reason, he ignores some stupid actions that should have been avoided at a glance.
In front of the intercepting line of the Han Army, a row of corpses stacked by many corpses are almost becoming a wall of flesh and blood, but there are still rout soldiers climbing up with distorted faces. Some are hit by bullets as soon as they start to become part of the corpse wall, some are shot a short distance from the corpse wall, and soon there are new corpses stacked with each other.
At nightfall, the defeated anti Han axis coalition troops retreating from the main battlefield were still not cut off, but the number was much less than that during the day.
It was not until midnight that the defeated troops of the anti Han axis coalition army retreated into twos and threes. The exhausted Han soldiers found that the number of new defeated troops had decreased sharply, and they didn't know whether to relax or disappointed.
"Do you have any new instructions?"
"Back to the school captain, there was no new order from the guard."
Yang Rui was still disappointed. They didn't have time to rush to the established position. They stopped temporarily to block, and didn't give full play to the greatest achievement of this detour.
Their blocking on this side is tantamount to the enemy's routed troops running through this "line", at least to the third line of defense established by the coalition forces on the anti Han axis. Because of their resistance to the rout, they were unable to reach the end of the enemy's rout into the enemy's third line of defense, which became the end of not completing the set marching goal and not achieving the most ideal result.
About midnight, Li Kuang came up with the follow-up troops.
There were 20000 troops. The riflemen in the main battlefield were left in the pontoon defense line of the Pinchi River and replaced by new troops transferred from the rear.
Yang Rui did not lead the army to continue westward, but stopped in place and waited for the arrival of the follow-up troops.
"The enemy left behind is about 15000." Yang Rui watched the whole process of blocking the enemy's routed troops, and visually observed that the number of troops destroyed was that: "if you fail to complete the plan, please protect and reduce your crime."
Li Kuang already knew the situation here. Facing Yang Rui's apology, he just nodded, not angry, and didn't say anything. Whether Yang Rui was guilty or not will naturally have a result in the outcome evaluation.
"Then in this battle, the enemy was wiped out by about 70000?" Song Ping calculated the results of the main battlefield together. He glanced at Yang Rui, who was full of guilt, and then looked at Li Kuang, who looked calm. He smiled and said, "seventy thousand enemy troops were destroyed in one day. The results are brilliant!"
In fact, no more than 20000 people actually died in the Han army. The enemy killed and trampled on each other in chaos. Not only is that the case on the main battlefield, but also on the intercepting line.
Therefore, once an army collapses, even if the enemy of the belligerent does nothing, many people will die in the collapsed army.
Li Kuang asked, "how many enemy soldiers did Chang Shi think fled to the enemy's third line of defense?"
"The enemy fled all over the mountains. Many enemy soldiers would not run back to the construction in view of their fear of fighting with us after they escaped." Song Ping also said common sense: "it's more than 23 / 10 to go back. The enemy deployed 50000 defenders in the third line of defense, plus the routed troops running past, it should be between 80000 and 90000?"
Li Kuang said faintly, "what a pity..."
Yang Rui lowered his head with regret and embarrassment on his face.
Song Ping is guessing what Li Kuang's sentence means.
The next day, the Han Army, who had not had much rest, gathered 30000 people and drove away.
While they were still marching, the scouts who set out earlier sent back information, and the enemy's third line of defense was empty.
It took about two months. I don't know how much money and manpower it took to build the defense line. It is mainly composed of a wall with a length of about 2500 meters. Some wall sections are also built with buildings similar to the urn city. There are perfect fortifications in front of the wall, such as ditches, walls, fence walls, horse resistance belts, pits, etc.
This line of defense is mainly composed of Roman and Persian vassal races, with a small number of Romans and Persians, and some other races.
It was at night that they learned that their more than 200000 front troops had lost, and it was a stunning defeat. The whole process from the attack of the Han Army to the disastrous defeat of its own army is less than six hours?
Also at night, the routed soldiers in front fled and brought some specious news. No one could explain the development of the war situation clearly, but told some hair raising information according to their own impression.
For example, how many people on our side rushed to the Han Army and killed and injured thousands of people without even touching a hair of the Han army.
Another example is that the strong city wall becomes ashes after an explosion. There will always be shells falling in the sky. It is not safe even to hide in the rear.
Too many terrible descriptions about the Han army kept coming out of the mouth of the defeated soldiers, and the fear spread. Especially when the vassal race of the Persians learned that the Persian army in front was likely to be wiped out, they immediately became empty.
His master was wiped out in less than a day against the Han army? How long can you support yourself if you go to fight the Han army?
The most shocking news is that the Han army only dispatched 10000 people, just 10000 people!
Ten thousand Han troops could defeat two hundred thousand allied troops with an absolutely strong advantage. In addition, the Romans and Persians sent their own strong troops to be almost destroyed. The time-consuming and hard-working wall did not last for half an hour.
The more information the routed soldiers told, the more fear the soldiers who did not participate in the front-line fighting increased by one point.
I don't know whether the routed soldiers fled again or the third line of defense filled with fear. Some people in the garrison fled first until someone found the figure of the Han Army on the defense line. Although the Han army was only a team of five, it caused another wave of escape.
Li Kuang came to see the empty defense line. Out of caution, he sent a team to explore first.
After a while of exploration, only a few enemy soldiers who didn't have time to run away because of moving materials were found. After a while of interrogation, they learned the reason why the enemy troops on the defense line fled without fighting.
"The so-called coalition forces are only 70000 regular Persian armies and less than 5000 Roman legions, most of which are people from small tribes and tribes." Li Kuang stood on the wall and made his own evaluation: "we all know what the people of small countries are, and what the people of small tribes and small tribes look like..."
There are no heroes in a small country, and no heroes in an ignorant crowd. This is the status quo.
"They have pulled up so many allies. I'm afraid they didn't expect to become a burden on themselves." Song Ping said with emotion: "our ancestors knew that self-improvement was really powerful for a long time, and never pinned the victory or defeat of a war on the so-called allies."
In fact, there were so many examples of the Warring States period that really made Zhuxia understand that allies were unreliable. At that time, the six countries repeatedly formed alliances, but not only had nothing to do with the state of Qin, but there was a lot of waste inside. All of them repeatedly proved that alliance can only be a dominant driving force for all the younger brothers. As long as there are two countries with similar strength in the alliance, the so-called alliance is more a drag.
Li Kuang looked at Song Ping and said, "those small countries and tribes will be handed over to you in the future."
Song Ping nodded with a smile. He knows what he should do next and believes that he will achieve good results.
The reason why those small countries and tribes were drawn into the so-called anti Han axis was that the Han Empire did not hide its hegemony, and that it was deterred by Rome and Persia.
Li Kuang has found that he did not hide the disadvantages of hegemony, which is also an important reason why the Romans and Persians can easily pull up such a large group of allies.
Although the Han Empire did not pay attention to those small countries and tribes, it may be able to avoid them from standing on the side of the Persians and Romans. What should be avoided is to avoid.
"This time, Du Hu led 10000 troops to defeat 200000 coalition troops. The news will soon spread all over the world." Song Ping is not flattering Li Kuang. It's really flattering. His credit is not small. He is telling the truth: "the prestige of the big man is more prosperous. People in these small countries must be afraid of the liquidation of the big man and try to get rid of the relationship with Persia and Rome..."
The Han Empire did not need allies, but it was not stupid enough to know that weakening the enemy was strengthening itself. It did not intend to gather those small countries, but it was still happy to turn around and find the trouble of the Persians and Romans.